The Power of Relationships

Transcript

hey welcome to this edition of podcast PD my name is Chris Nessie at Mr Nessie

on Twitter and I'm about to record episode 128 of podcast PD if you're joining live

let me know in the chat where you're coming from if you want to be a part of the show tonight I would certainly

welcome that because as you can see I am flying solo the podcast Paisano

I don't know where he is he didn't file a vacation before no I'm kidding uh Aja had other obligations but we still

wanted to make sure that we put out an episode and uh

put out what we wanted to put out so let me know in the chat where you're coming from if you want to join uh the link is

scrolling there at the bottom podcast pd.com join and today's episode we're

gonna well we I am going to talk about the power of connections the power of

relationships in education so I'm very excited to be doing that

all right so this is the little intro and piece of the show that doesn't make it into the recording

but uh certainly here on YouTube so let's get to it

coming up on episode 128 of podcast PD will uncover the power of connection in

teaching and learning from the teacher-student relationship to building strong connections with parents

colleagues and the school Community we'll discuss how nurturing these relationships can transform the

educational experience let's start the show [Music]

podcast PD the show that provides you with anytime anywhere professional development

our conversations and guests will provide you with the learning you might get in a faculty meeting or on a PD day

except you're going to have more fun with AJ Bianco and me Chris Nessie let's start the show

welcome back to podcast PD this is episode 128 of the podcast my name is Chris

Nessie at Mr Nessie on Twitter and I want to thank you for making podcast PD

a part of you or anytime anywhere professional development if you're a new listener welcome if you're a returning

listener welcome back I am flying solo today it is Memorial Day weekend it is

the last Sunday in May and AJ had other obligations to get to so AJ is not here

in this episode so it is just me it's a solo Chris episode which I'll be honest

I don't know if in the history of podcast PD I've ever had to do the entire episode by myself

I used to I'm sure I've done an episode or two with Stacy without AJ and then

you know since Stacy left the show obviously it's just been AJ and I and here I am the cheese stands or podcasts

alone but uh this is a very exciting time of year it's the end of the year uh

for some listeners it might already be the end of the school year the last week of school you know if you start in

August you should be getting out of school around now I am not done with school until June 16th and uh the hustle

and bustle of the end of the year is here wherever you are listening from I hope

you are enjoying your spring and getting to the end of the school year and also you know if you're into summer vacation

hope you're enjoying the start of that and hopefully you'll continue to make the podcast a part of your summer

professional development you know we've got a back catalog uh the last episode

127 that AJ and I did we spoke with Gary arnt the host of everything everywhere

daily which is one of my favorite podcasts that I do listen to on a daily basis since I discovered it so if you

want to learn more about Gary his story his journey make sure you go back and check out episode 127 and that's at

podcastpd.com one two seven in this episode I want to talk about

the power of relationships as the title says okay because

relationships are important in education and there are so many different

relationships that we have as Educators okay we've got the relationship between

teachers and students we've got the relationship between teachers and

parents we've got our relationship teacher to teacher the relationship that

teachers have with their schools the relationships that teachers have with their school communities teachers to

admin okay so there are so many different aspects of the this one simple

word relationships okay and relationships are

important in education education is almost

built on relationships and a part of relationships is Trust

and without trust it is very difficult to develop relationships that's not only

in education we know that in life that any solid meaningful relationship that

you have with another person trust has to be a part of it and here at

the end of the school year as I record this in May of 2023.

we're all in a position where we have built up a lot of trust Equity with our

students student families all the different stakeholders in education

we've built up that trust over the course of the school year now you might discover this episode and

be listening to this right now before the start of a school year you might be in the middle of a school year you

you're thinking about how on Earth am I supposed to develop good positive

relationships or meaningful relationships with so many different kinds of people that I'm going to

encounter in my career okay why don't we start with what might

be the very most important relationship and that is the relationship that you as

an educator develop with your students okay it is so critical at any level I

don't care if you're teaching Pre-K or you are teaching you know doctorate level

graduate thesis level courses you are going to develop relationships

with your students okay and it all

starts with a positive Rapport and again that Foundation of trust students need

to know that they can trust us students need to feel safe

with their teachers okay that if you can't start there then

honestly I don't know what you're doing in this profession if you don't have the ability to let people feel connected to

you obviously I'm talking in a professional way where they can trust you feel like they get to know you they

can feel safe with you then you know stop listening go find a new profession okay

um it starts with trust it starts with I think being welcoming gone are the days

and I don't know if it was ever true where you have to not smile until

Christmas and you can't let your students get to know you as a person all

right because this is a field education as an institution is built around people

I've talked about it here on podcast PD before I've also talked about it on House of Ed tech for many years about

the human element in education and the idea that on people your people

your students are people we are all human beings

okay and without that solid trust and

the ability to build relationships you can't be successful in education

and speaking of trust and relationships just when you think that you know things happen and you

can't lean on people you can lean on people welcome to the episode the podcast

Paisano AJ what is going on he's looking for the mute button he's fumbling for

the mute button what's up my buddy nope can't hear you

[Laughter] all right well AJ figures out his uh I'm

here he's here my goodness what is up my friend

we had a baseball game tonight did you win and we went for ice cream because the last game of the season

no it's May 28th what do you mean the last game of the season the spring season is done only to have

the summer season start in a couple of days nice is that the uh the team sure I thought it looks pretty slick what is

that um this is a not a team shirt this is just a shirt from the town

so here we are here I am hello everyone sorry I'm I'm late to the evening I was

trying to get the kids dinner and bathed and um

only some of that is done so here I am taking a little break from the the uh the daddy duties that I have to

take care of only do a podcast with you Christopher Nissi well the last one we

do one more what are we doing here what do you mean what last one what are we taking over the summer school year no no

I don't even know what's going on anymore I feel it very much out of the loop it's been busy

Sunday at one point I didn't know it was Sunday at one point I was like ah you're

off tomorrow right I'm off tomorrow I'm off on Tuesday as well I was off on Friday night excellent excellent well

it's living life man it's living life I don't know uh we'll talk about it yeah

we'll talk about I'm sorry you were doing the uh Soliloquy over here uh yeah I was monologuing on the teacher student

relationship and and Trust uh I'm glad you're here here I am please now I can

stop and I can say uh so I led into this conversation AJ talking about the idea

that there are so many different kinds of relationships that exist in education teacher student teacher teacher teacher

admin teacher parent uh teacher School community so there's all these different dynamics that exist

in this world of Education so I had just decided to start with what

I felt was the most important and that is the teacher-student relationship

um is is do you agree that that is the most important relationship that exists in terms of the human beings that

interact in education or does another Dynamic stand out to you no to me that

that's that's first and foremost because if a teacher student don't have the

correct [Music] I will say the correct relationship if things are not working then then there's

no learning involved and I think that's why it's imperative I mean this is something we talked about the beginning of the

year every year right it's imperative to teach the student before you teach the content because you got to understand

who your kids are you know and you gotta have that that ear you know when the students are not feeling it and you have

to sometimes just sometimes just not a day for teaching some days it's just let me hang out and

see what see what's happening and make sure everything is good and make sure you know we're feeling good about our

class and the people around us and not just the topics

now obviously you know our listeners know that you're in the admin role now

what did it look like when you were you know that Middle School social studies

teacher and you know you were interacting with those you know seventh and eighth grade students uh what was it

like for you building relationships and what kind of value did you place on it

what was it like for me yeah building relationships with my students yeah like

like how did you how did you do it and yeah so we can get into how that's different as an admin now but no I I I

don't I don't know I think I I kind of keep it the same now than I did when I was in the classroom because the only

difference was it was my classroom um as opposed to like the school

um I I just I enjoyed letting the kids get to know me you know and this is who Mr Bianca was this is what I stand for

this is what I I believe in um I I think the best way to make the

students feel comfortable was to make sure that they felt part of the classroom and

now the school right um I don't I don't think it's a problem

to to um stop teaching sometimes and and just be

you I don't think that's an issue I don't think it's a bad thing to spend a week at the beginning of the year just

doing team building that's one of the things I do all the time just while the kids knew each other from for years

you know I didn't really know them so that team building was was a major part of it

um finding all the different Icebreaker activities and all that stuff you know this stuff that we don't like to do as adults now was the stuff I did with kids

because we can make it fun we can make it exciting you know humor in my classroom was a big part of it you know

um having my classroom and now my office decorated in ways that show my beliefs

and my interests you know my kids come in they look around I'm like what's the matter like why is your office look like

this I look like what like what do you mean like why are there Funko Pops why

is there Yankee stuff on there why is what's that Banner on the wall mean like what's that poster of who's that guy you

know so like you know I I it takes a moment to kind of just like

break it down and um let the kids kind of see you for who you

are because it's a team you know and and as much as you have to have the respect

and the trust you also have to have yeah that's important for the kids to see you

for who you are uh I do a lot of those same things right you know some of the

things that I hang up in my classroom and I'm in a little bit of a different scenario where in my school you know I

don't have one dedicated classroom that I am in all day it's my room so I'm in two classrooms a lot of the two all the

teachers in my school move around so you know there's that uh that other relationship Dynamic you know teacher to

teacher to decorate a classroom and you know the you know the one classroom I share with

a Spanish teacher so I told I told that woman you know she's new to the school I said look I'm only in here one class a

day you're in here multiple classes this is a Spanish classroom so don't uh you

decorate you put up what you want to put up so there's all this Spanish language learning stuff up and all around the

classroom and I'm in there once a day and you know then it's a world history classroom

um the other classroom I'm in talking about you know decoration and personality I'm with another history

teacher but that guy teaches doesn't teach the same stuff I teach so he's got all different

stuff hung up so it's like half the room is U.S history the other half is you know world history right so we got all

kinds of stuff going on in that room but then there are things that each of us show off our personalities you know

between our desks and our little area of the room um but that's important and the big

thing you hit on is that kids got to get to know us and I think you and I are from a similar

mold where you know we're comfortable letting kids get to know us like they know I have a wife they know I have two

kids uh they know what I like to do when I'm not in school and you know obviously

you know bringing you know podcasting in you know I talk about that kind of stuff I talk Yankees I can talk about you know

some of the TV shows that we watch that we have in common or you know games we play so it's it's important and even if

you know I have no interest in what some of these kids are into I will lie to them I'm not gonna lie to

the audience I will show interest even if it's faked just to you know make a

kid feel comfortable I think we all do that from time to time and we'll listen to them and you know

kind of I I've been turned on to different music because of what some of the kids share

you know um

AJ can you hear me I got you now you cut out for me for a little bit all right well I was talking

about uh I miss the children I heard that and I was about to say

something but uh go ahead God no it just says I I

I don't lie to them but I tell them sure I'm not interested

where I'll tell them I'm not interested yeah have you oh that's the I talk about Tick Tock with my kids of course I do of

course yeah and I'm like no don't I don't care about Tick Tock I don't care about these Tick Tock trends like I don't even want to hear about the latest

thing you saw like don't don't even bring it in here you know um but no I I depending on what it is if

it's something like that's genuine I could see an interest there you know I'll listen to like tell me about it but

like there's some things I'm just like nope don't even want to hear it because I don't want to know I don't want to know about this that the other thing

like just do you find that you do that more because you're in an admin role or

did you also do that same kind of thing to some degree when you were in the classroom no there was in the classroom too like you know when fortnite was out

everybody's like oh you want to see fortnite I was like no I have no interest in learning about fortnite or seeing fortnite or watching you watch

someone play fortnite so you can go do that on your own time uh you know it but it like it's that

different it

I don't know what's going on it's it's uh it's that other piece it's like oh well Mr Bianca doesn't really like this but

you gotta check this out though because then they still push and that's where you know you're winning right yeah you know

things like in your corner because they don't care how much you don't care because they're going to show you anyway

and that's where you know their relationship is successful one of the other things that I know that the relationships are successful is and

this this might be more of a you know post covered thing a lot of uh fist

bumps you know I get a lot of kids who you know I've seen in the last couple years that you know when learning was

different and now it's more normal like I'm seeing these kids in the hallway and so many kids

for lack of better words they interrupt my class all the time former students coming in to say hey you know what's

going on and um you know kids will hang out in the hallway before class and you know I have

so many more so than ever I'll be honest this year I have more students who I do

not teach that have taken a liking to me and you

know they come up and talk to me they tell me all about their day what's going on they're spilling the tea on this that and the other thing and you know I'm a

sounding board and just kind of just somebody who will listen and you know be supportive and I don't even have some of

these kids that's super super meaningful like I

think that's like the best thing like you have that reputation where like you can be trusted you know in a variety of ways

and you know what the weird thing is for some of the students this year I didn't

think I had a positive relationship with them when they were my students last year and then this year all of a sudden

it was maybe it's because I'm not their teacher anymore they can you know more appreciate my sense of humor or my

personality that I'm not you know being a pain in their neck about their work and their assignments but they you know

felt something to appreciate me as a person I don't know what do you think I I

it just takes one small measure man like honestly I think

they're kids right yeah they're kids and we're never gonna know what they're

thinking inside their little adolescent brains right so there's definitely times where like you've definitely clicked with them

but you may not think so but one thing you said to them they hold on to and that's the relationship right there and

they're never going to tell you like oh you're my favorite they'll joke around and say it at different points because

you know they're trying to like prove a point but yeah I think for the most part when when when that is the situation you

start feeling you know you understand like who they are right you you you know you've been doing

this for a number of years now yeah I actually I have uh I have one student uh they uh

a couple of months ago they asked me if they brought in food that needed to be heated up would I heat it up for them

like in a teacher's microwave because they're like yeah I don't like the school food and you know I would just

like could I bring stuff in I'm like sure bring in food if anybody gives you a problem tell them you're bringing it

to me and you know I got you right so they've brought in soup Ramen

hot cup you know Hot Pockets did they come and see me right away in the morning and I gotta throw it in the

freezer that's awesome and uh then I have to keep them safe by making sure I don't heat the Hot Pocket up too

hot I don't need anybody getting uh I don't want to hurt anybody because yeah we hold on if you don't know if it's been a long time since you've eaten a

Hot Pocket every bite is a different temperature yes it has been a number of years but I still remember that fondly

as in just when you think you had a cold spot the rest of it is scorching which just

makes no sense to me yeah and you know there's those little moments where you realize you've clicked and you've made

those connections with kids and it's like a light bulb goes on you either see it in them or even you realize it in

yourself that you've got them like like it's clicked you're now connected

um I had this one young lady all year she would she's come into my classroom in the Spanish classroom and you know

would do her work never really spoke to me always with a hood on always with a mask and then one day I I realized I I

was I went to McDonald's after school and learned that a former student who

was working the drive through who I would see a couple times was like oh you have my sister in class I'm like oh who's your sister and he's like oh so

and so I'm like really so I came in the next day I didn't make two I didn't make a big deal out of it in front of her but

I'm like hey I didn't know that so-and-so is your brother and she's like oh yeah and then like we collect because

I'm like just so you know like I really liked your brother and he was good people and now I I know for sure you're

good people I had his back I got your back right I got you anything you need I got you right and then slowly but surely

more conversations and now I don't know if it's just me but not wearing the hood no mask

um more talkative asking questions so something clicked something clicked so

it takes one one little one little thing where you can share share the uh something common that's all that matters

that's all that matters yeah there was another kid you know was a challenging

student all year and then he went out for baseball and I was

involved just a couple days a week volunteering to help out with the baseball team because I knew the assistant coach who was in the building

they had a new varsity coach so I was like let me stay out of trouble let me help out after school and

this kid shows up to tryouts and he's like Mr Nessie you're coaching I'm like yeah let's go and then we we look like

it was like Field of Dreams like we played catch after school and then like I would see him in class and then slowly

that relationship turned mm-hmm you know so coaching is powerful being an advisor

is powerful you know what I do with the podcasting certainly building relationships with students and helping

kids out right this is all stuff like obviously everybody who's listening knows but

sometimes we just forget because we get so caught up in everything else that goes on around us

you know we forget as these small things these small moments for our students that they just need to know they have

somebody you know in their corner yeah well

a lot of this and again because we're talking about people a lot of what you and I have talked about and what I

talked about before he was able to hop in you know a lot of these things apply to the other relationships that exist in

education right um why don't we shift gears and talk

about teacher to like colleague to colleague relationships and the importance of

relationships with other adults um I will say that they are

not obviously they're not the most important piece but certainly having a good working relationship with your

colleagues is important because you know I think you see this now as an admin you

know for all pulling in the same direction hopefully the ship will sail smoothly right so hopefully you know

positive relationships with other adults is important I don't think it's the most important because you know I learned

long ago I'm not at work to make friends right I'm at work to do my job friends

are a a pleasant byproduct of my profession right what do you think

what's your take on that no I I think that's very true I think it's good to have people around you because look no

matter where you are you want to be in a place where you feel you know you have somebody that you can connect with right

um it's it's not the only thing but it's a good thing you know because you

you don't want to be a place in a place where you just kind of go in you do your job you go home and you just kind of

repeat that and you have to have a sounding board you have to have a support system at work it's it's

important you know who was our guest who helped uh really helped me to see that

it's not about being at work and bitching and moaning who who was it was that when we had Jake Thompson yes yes

Jake yeah still I I really took that to heart when we had after that episode to not

make the faculty room and my prep time with the other guys who teach world history to be just you know bitching and

moan Fest right right you know we try to do productive things we spent a lot of time this year after that conversation

doing more prep doing more planning you know playing with Ed Tech stuff playing with

Chachi PT you know we're just like doing social study stuff and we've spent less time and and even when I start to see

the conversation go in that direction even you know of late here at the end of the year I'm just like well why are we

wasting our time talking about right we're not going to change the system we've complained for long enough all

right now what can we do that's positive and like I try to kind of lead in that direction but you know these are guys

who you know I want to invite them over you know barbecue summer you know we do

stuff after school we'll go out to eat uh so it is important to have those good

relationships it's def it's definitely important it's definitely important again you have to have those moments you

know where you have somebody you can fall back to and some of you can rely on that you trust that you can speak your

mind you know collaborate when you need to but also have that moment of like I just need to get angry and you're going

to listen to me you and I have done that for each other no I'm working the same building all

right right so I think that's also important too is you know if you're any type of connected

educator you know obviously you're going to have friends and build relationships with people who you may not actually

work with but you know like you and I you know connected through podcasting and Ed camps and the fact that we both

teach social studies and have a love of Education technology and presenting and you know we're Italian and Yankee fans

so I mean the uh The Blood Brothers the good stuff all the good stuff yeah

yeah I mean look I think there's

I don't know there's the time to get into it but I think there's that misconception that like when you go to work

like do you trying to figure out how to say this the

right way right when you go to work is work a place that you need to feel supported or is work a place where you

need the people around you and them and your boss to make you feel happy right especially in a school right now

like what's what's the job your job is to teach and to be there for the

students if the students are not behaving or if the students are not listening or they're not doing what you want to do is it then your friend's

fault as the colleagues to help you or is it your friend's fault or or your boss's fault that you're not happy with

what's going on like who is it who whose responsibility is it to be happy at work your own responsibility right you can't

rely on other people around you I think to some degree you have to make your own sunshine you do yep right but I think

there is some responsibility on leaders to facilitate the possibility

of sunshine to some degree I'm not saying I mean I've heard what I would

classify as horror stories where principals will tell whole staffs that it's not their job to at all to make

the staff happy right but I think as a leader and what I understand about leadership and what I

hold in my heart about leadership is it is partly your responsibility to make

Sunshine for the people that you lead and that you're taking care of right I I Simon sinek Echoes loudly in my head

when it comes to leadership and taking care of others right um

well what do you think I mean you're you know you're a couple years into your role as an administrator right

um I like to think I know you as a human being and you know you don't walk into your school and have a double-sided

lightsaber wielding the dark side every day yep thank you to my keys

um I don't know how I feel about that to be honest with you and that's a definitely a different

voice um I I don't know how I feel about this because

I feel like it's more of my job to create an environment where people feel

supported and I cannot continue to bring happiness to every person

just because they're not feeling happy well it's hard

would have okay so as an admin are you

aware of the things that are frustrating your staff

I feel like I'm pretty much in the know I feel that way

I might be wrong but I can go that way so so I come from a place where

I feel like at times admin sweeps things under the rug or like

there are things that frustrate me that

um like the fix seems simple right but again as one who at one point

aspire to be out of the classroom you know there are things that are not in my purview there is obviously information

I'm not always privy to as a classroom teacher so

I at times will get frustrated but then I will walk myself back and be like all

right there's probably some angle I'm not thinking of so why waste my time being frustrated okay

I'm isn't that like work in general like some things are just out of your control some things you don't need to know about

okay I'm just saying it's not isn't that like just work like that's what happens

like of course everybody wants to know like the details of something or like

you know everybody wants the news everyone wants to gossip but sometimes it's just it's not up to you

to know some things

look I don't need the gossip but it's just like I'm not saying you do I'm just saying some people are like why didn't

you tell me because you didn't need to know [Laughter]

why you didn't tell me that student was not in my classroom because you didn't need to know why

you didn't need to know where they were all you need to know all you need to know was that they weren't there

and we told you that you've had to have those conversations before why did you tell me so why was so and so

suspended I mean I I mean I well I can always find

that out but right you can find out I'm sure you will find out because guess what the kids are gonna know

that is sometimes it just feels like there's little things and this is not an admin thing you know that like no you

know there are so many other you know moving parts in a school where it's just like

certain things seem like they would just be a courtesy and little things would make life easy you know from something

as little as can can you write a kid a pass right

yeah you know or you know if you held a

student send me an email right hmm that's that's yeah

oh well um

now something you can speak to I think because I I've never been in this position

um admin to admin relationships obviously as professionals

um what what is that like in in your experience and you know obviously being one who is more

connected to central office and supervisors and superintendents you know how how is that different or is

it similar to what you experienced as a teacher and what I know of as a teacher

to teacher I think I think it's weirder now

I don't feel like I actually talked to the other administrators outside of my building right because it it in right now it's

just like we don't do and they're building principle right me and the building principle we kind of do our thing you know and sometimes we see

other administrators and a lot of times we don't you know it's our building so like a lot

of them for for us our our um supervisors are stationed at the high school

so they come over when they need to do an observation of a middle school or they come over when you know we ask them

to have a meeting with us but you know for the most part like the relationship is there because it's a it's a collegial

relationship right but we're not going out of our way for anything else besides that it's just it doesn't fit what we're

what we're doing it just doesn't you know because we're doing the day-to-day thing in the building

we're busy and the brother is doing their thing yeah so that relationship is very different

very very different is as as a VP is your immediate

supervisor your principal or is there somebody okay no my my supervisor is my

principal gotcha okay is there anybody else that you report to

and in the hierarchy that is the district or is it just I mean superintendent but in the assistant

superintendent actually more the assistant soup than the soup like for curriculum and instruction yeah

okay yeah but but the principle is number one supervisors are actually underneath me

oh like in in the in the hierarchy of nonsense uh

all right uh well I think that covers professional I know the thoughts on

professional relationships

um by the way Mel a is watching she said you sound super professional tonight wow look at me go

could be the audio quality could be the company maybe I should stop that then you all know me I don't want to be

professional um is there anything else to share about relationships

I don't know I I

finding somebody you can rely on is super important you know and and

be the person who everybody hates like honestly like I remember

people put this one together go ahead yeah yeah so like I would go out of my way and just say

good morning to people my own School they didn't give a crap like why is this guy every morning

saying good morning because I wanted to like it's just just go say just say good morning say it back

to me like just say good morning back to me so go be the people the person everybody hates

in that way no in any way oh just make people not like you that's the key to

success make them hate you make them hate you

huh there you go there's my uh

how I became successful people hate me people hate me

um well speaking of people hating you let's talk about the relationship we have as professionals with parents

do we have to people hate me here's my spin on it

I see the the dynamic between teacher or I'll

say educator and parent is one of and this is just my opinion customer service

and I fall back to my many years working retail hmm

whether it was Best Buy Office Max any other number of places where it was a

customer service oriented job yeah I found or I find that the ability to provide

good customer service helps for sure you know when I do

parent-teacher conferences I have a great way of

being able to not only have a conversation that's positive about a student and parents leave happy but also

having those what I would think would be difficult conversations about a student who is struggling or might have

discipline issues and you have to have a difficult conversation with a parent about their child who they love and it's

their kid to still have them walk away feeling positive

right and then oftentimes I have students who will be there for those

conferences where you know parent and child are crying hugging embracing each other child is

apologizing to the parent you know for for their behavior whatever the case may be and

everybody leaves happy and and I'm never one in those situations to be like you

know to trash a kid like every kid has hope there's good positive possibilities

for every kid there's no such thing as a bad boy or girl whatever you know so

yeah AJ real quick do we want to take a call take a call yeah okay

no a from somewhere in the world I know she's moving around but we're talking

relationships tonight and let's see what Mel a has to say what's up Mel okay

sorry my face wasn't on [Music] hold on okay hello how are you long time

Mercy AJ is like on another level of professional oh wow

yep well Chris always sounds like that like but then you know I don't know but then yeah it's

okay okay you're beating Chris now congratulations wow I'm waiting for my 400 microphone in the

trash jeez trash what's on your mind Mel talk about relationships what do you got

it's really hot I don't think I'm about the very important and you

have to build them right and it's not just with your students it's like with your community like you're talking about

parents talking about maybe the leadership team and you guys are sort of you know I'm like nobody well not nobody but you know

you know um no and it's hard and I think it's hard to maintain that like that that distance

you know you have to have that very you cannot look there's a line you know that line that's like invisible but it's not

really I don't know it's a bit weird talking about but yes

um there's definitely that line that you should never cross for sure and there's too many headlines about that yeah

[Music] um for me I think it's quite a challenge with parents where I

am because of the language barrier because I am in Colombia so it is Spanish and so a lot of the

communication I have with them is like three emails and then using something like Google translate or something

approach where they can um hear my message in English but read it in Spanish for example

um and I was being quite good at that at the start of the year like every couple of weeks I said that like an update

every Friday about what's going on in the class and if they want to you know if they have any questions they

can ask me uh but I mean I have not

maintained that as well as I should have I sort of tried to do that at the start

of the year and then I don't know last couple of months you know things get crazy and then yeah yes

yes I was gonna say Mel I'm in a similar

situation I teach in a primarily I teach a lot of Hispanic students where the the

students speak English you know that that's not an issue but you know a lot of their parents and Guardians are

Spanish-speaking and uh their English is very limited so I'll have students stay

for parent-teacher conferences the student is there to translate and you know we have a tool we use talking

points to to send I can send text messages home and the parents get it in you know I

type it up in English they get it in Spanish when they reply I get it in Spanish um

so maybe check out talking points it is free for teachers to use and districts can sign up

um as uh as a district but if you were just an independent teacher you could certainly go and check that out as well

and I found it to be very valuable but the advantage to a district doing it is they can get all the parents to get the

app or get all their phone numbers and they've got all that data to kind of set it up and get parents going on that

whereas an individual teacher would need to get all the phone numbers and go

through all that so check it out um I was gonna say

oh he what I did I started using I made things that were more visual

to to send home information so I used let me I'll do a little house event Tech here

I use the bulk upload feature in canva to design Graphics that will take data that I

upload and it will make a custom image with those data points and I can and

then I use talking points to send home these visual progress reports or attendance updates or just little things

where I can put all the data in a spreadsheet upload it to canva it makes all these images and then yes I had to

painstakingly have to download them and then send them out one at a time but I've gotten more responses from parents

who are like oh I can see that little Johnny has a b right now and they have this many

absences so I've made it more Visual and real quick um so some things to consider different

try to hit them from different angles and try different ways to connect with

parents and nav those positive relationships because again you're teaching their kid and every kid you

teach is somebody else's child so you've got to have that good rapport with them

it's very true

I don't know did you talk about students earlier we did we started with the importance I

I in my opinion that's the most important relationship in education teacher student relationships what are

your thoughts on that oh yeah obviously yes they are important and I mean it is getting close to the

end of the year and like we have about a month left and same here

yes but the kids are like starting exams and things like that in a moment and I

think the reflection thing is important um to maintain that throughout the year so if you're getting the kids to really

think about what they've been doing for the year and sort of getting them to reconnect with

you in a way because I think when they go studying for exams they sort of Disconnect in a way it look like it's a

different sort of connection you know they're like trying to get good grades or obsessions with grades and they sort

of forget other things so it's like when they're finishing their exams okay we're coming back to being with us you know

being in our class and learning how to reinteract with each other after these

really intense exams and I think yeah that's quite important you know it depends on how the Rapport

has been throughout the year you know as to whether you can regain their attention

um the connection that you have with them at that point I think it's hard one would think that you kind of build

up Equity throughout the year with your students I would I would hope I hope so

um what are some of the ways that AJ and I talked about some of the things we do at

the beginning of the year uh what are some things you do at the beginning of a year how do you build those positive

relationships with kids it's probably the same as whatever you guys did or like not really because you

guys are purse or my life is probably about us can you feed my Pros we are all

doing the same thing yeah we're all struggling you know but

I'm not saying that you're super old but I mean like you know you have a lot more experience than me

um [Music] so anyway

um so I assume that the ideas all you've done is assume we're old

okay anyway it's not really an assumption sure well I don't know maybe you have more

it doesn't really mean anything um but it just means you're wiser okay let's move on from this okay so anyway

so basically with my students at the start of the year

um I have to make sure I actually understand how to pronounce the name properly I'm so bad with that

so we use either well you know how integrating ad Tech tools are stuff at the start of the year you know they have

a you know sort of like a couple of weeks to sort of learn the things and so get them to use like either end puzzle where they can record their name as like

how they want um need to pronounce it because you know people will write you know how they'll

want to be called because sometimes you have a really long name and they want you to shorten it in a certain way but

of course you still have no idea how it sounds um so yeah any any of those audio recording options whether it's like an

ad puzzle or like flip with a lot of lip stuff back in the days um whatever and sometimes I actually

have to go back to them and play it to be like oh wait how do I pronounce their name again I'm at the start of the year

to make sure I actually am doing it correctly um because yeah it's just like obviously my accent is not ecstatic and so when I

try to pronounce things it's not the best I guess uh but yeah that's one

of the things about this thought and just getting them to share about like how they like to learn you know because it's so important at the start of the

and I know I teach mathematics as probably the same as like any other subject but for whatever reason my subject oh the students either really

hate it and they have this like this this feeling that you know they're awful at it like their whole entire life like

I was born bad at math or something like that so the start of the year it's like trying to get that idea uh away from

their mind like to say that okay all of you have potential for growth you're all going to see you know how you grow is

going to be very different for each of you and we're all going to make mistakes I'm going to make mistakes we are not perfect but it doesn't matter like

whether you think you're bad or good at math we all have like our strengths and weaknesses and making sure that's clear at the start like so important at the

start and then to keep maintaining that throughout the year because for whatever reason they're still obsessed with grades right so if they get a grade that

is not very good that just like makes a but then we talk we have to reflect so that reflection thing is so important to

see you know actually no I did grow in these parts I actually do understand to do these things just these other parts

I'm not so good at still but that's okay I can work on that but that's really hard but I think it's really important you know for the South Year anyway I

went on a bit tangent about reflection but yeah no those are those are some that's that's some good stuff right

there there's things you know we didn't think about because it's a different topic you know so like asking kids how

they feel you know about the topic asking how they like to learn how they

want their name be being pronounced you know for us like you know we have kids who haven't named that they were given

at Birth but you know they want their name to be more Americanized and we don't know that because it doesn't come up in our um

in our SMS so there's some good good ideas right there appreciate that the uh the thing that I that I will tell

kids at the beginning of the year is you know it doesn't matter to me because

some of you are going to crawl some of you are going to walk and some of you are going to run with the content and it

doesn't matter to me which one you do because as long as you're moving forward that's positive right it's when you feel

you know you feel defeated you know I'm I'm going to be here to cheerlead and you know pump you up and let you know

you can do it and you know whether using a tool or understanding a concept or you know with history analyzing a document

and really hammering those skills that they need not just for social studies uh

but you know for life you know as long as they're moving forward I let them know that you you will be able to do

more at the end of the year than you can right now and you'll pick up a little history along the way and if I was a math

teacher I would apply a similar mindset obviously math is a little more intense

because it's tough to move on if you don't have the foundations and some of the skills from September and October to

be able to do the things you do at the end of the year but I'm sure you work very hard to get your kids to make

progress and build up their confidence in in math specifically

yeah I try I think it's like the culture I guess for every school is different

right and so how you interact with the kids is going to be different depending on where you are what you're doing and

like I shared with you I think Chris already that I'm like I'm moving to Africa in in August so I mean like it's

going to be super different again so it's like where I am in Colombia so

going from Australia to Taiwan to Colombia and then to Africa and like having to make sure you know what the

kids there are going to be like and how I need to interact with them just like Columbia is very social

Taiwan and not so much and Malawi where I'm going I mean I I need to I probably

don't have to ask a bit more about the culture that everyone say like everything's really nice everyone's like super welcoming I'm like okay

that could mean a lot of different things like depends like your idea of that and my idea of that might be different so you know I think it's just

it is important to get like sort of a background information I guess um before you like jump into stuff at

the start of the year because you might be like oh this might be a really great idea and this worked really well with whatever whatever but I mean there's

another group of students different cultures yeah well the nice thing is

you'll still be you're still going to teach math yeah universal language everybody's got

no math what kind of math do you teach again

what kind of I mean like I teach at Isaac school not that that means anything really necessarily but I mean

I've taught grade seven to twelve I mean at the moment so algebra in Colombia is

going to be the same as algebra in Malawi solve for x Universal

right unless I'm ignorant tell me no you're fine okay

uh that's exciting what are you gonna teach in America and

America yeah like seems like you're working your way

around I am not planning to teach in America I

I'm impressed by what you guys do and how you guys do that but I'm I'm good did you say impressed or afraid to come

here I mean that fast I think I'm impressed you guys are amazing okay like

what you do and like all the things that you guys yeah anyway

that this thing is not about you know your amazingness in America and

how you do what you do yes

there's no amazing anything well you know it's recorded I'm going to play that back to you when I'm feeling down

now there you go right no America is amazing America is amazing you

it's very difficult and we feel like even though we're doing our best like nothing is happening but we are actually

making a difference I think that is the universal sentiment right now yes

yeah anyway um as I look at the the little notes I

put together here I think we we have hit all of the points

do you have any other uh inspirational words for us Mel about relationships anything of that nature I I love her

facial expressions because she's like why is he gonna try to make me talk more right almost like she didn't want to be

on the show with them no I just came inside I hadn't been on

here for a very long time um no no you guys are inspiring enough as it is I'm sure that everything that you shared was

inspiring and I have to go back to that why stop shaking your head ah sorry

um too complimentary I'll have to go back to obviously the start of this to remind myself of the amazingness and

ideas about maintaining relationships because as you said without relationships basically

um yeah nothing right it's like a giant fail that's not inspiring words at all okay I'm just like reminding that

everyone needs to go back and you know start from the start anyway so start from the start t-shirts

coming soon I like that yep start from the start Mel thank you for hopping on for a few minutes with us we really

appreciate it and you might not believe it but you inspire us and it's glad

we're glad to have your perspective as well and people can see you shaking your head honestly your own video

you wouldn't say anything I mean like you know some people just listen they don't watch this you know well hey

everybody go out to uh podcastpd.com YouTube or podcast pd.com 128 and come

out to the like 40 minute Mark and you can see Mel a in the video in the 50 minute Marshall

shaking her head so yeah

we don't do much editing on this at all yeah let me know

foreign thank you for hopping on we appreciate it

she is at fungully on Twitter go follow Mel a

I love when melee interacts with us it's always funny yes she's a lot of fun it's a good time

you know what else is fun people who support the podcast AJ that is very

but we have some other people who support us in another way so do you find

Value in the conversations that we have here on podcast PD well you can give back to podcast PD on

a monthly or a yearly basis we give you value with our conversations and if you want to give value back you can do that

by becoming an executive producer go to podcastpd.com

executive producer and you can join the ranks of Holly

landez Sandy Hartman and the incomparable Stephanie skrocky who I am

looking forward to reconnecting with at ISD yes I do want to promote an event

that's coming up here it is the very shortly not the SD part everyone knows about SD so I want to promote something

else executive producer and consider giving

value back to the show as a thank you every executive producer gets a podcast

PD executive producer sticker and if you support us for a year we'll send you the

sticker and a T-shirt and a mug we'll send you some other stuff too yeah get an autograph

laughs a signed pass from AJ and Chris there you go

the pass will get you nowhere that in a token will put you on a bus

I'll give you bus pass yes oh that's a whole separate thing anyway uh so the thing I want to talk

about AJ obviously iste is coming up and uh I am doing another Cheesesteak Meetup

she's like it is the house of edtech podcast PD

education podcast Network Meetup that is a long name you might want to shorten that well I I

it's I added our name because I'm on this show right now oh okay

it's the house of edtech Education podcast Network G steak Meetup uh but I will say this if you want to

come out on Tuesday June 27th at 5 30 pm and you're at iste in Philadelphia we're

going to be at Campos Deli on Market Street and I would love it if you are as

vp'd go to chrisnesi.com Meetup

fill out the Google form and uh then I'll have an idea of who is coming and I

would love to interact with you if you're a listener of this show or House of edtech or another show on the education podcast Network or

any other education podcast I do not care I just like to meet people any

Tuesdays and I just want to eat cheesesteaks with friends so we'll just make some new friends but I will say

this I'll make the same offer that I did on House of edtech if you show up to this and you're wearing a podcast PD

t-shirt I will buy your Cheesesteak for you wow yes so that means if you're wearing a

house of Ed Tech shirt or a podcast PD shirt I will buy your Cheesesteak what if you're wearing a Yankee shirt uh no I'm

not promoting the Meetup on the chase for 28. you show up I will buy your Cheesesteak

AJ I appreciate that I just saved myself nine dollars you did

I don't know if I can make it it's baseball season cool not baseball like Yankees I'm doing like

kids are playing kids kids yeah coach your kids play ball yeah playable that's

what we do we'll see what ends first the season or those Valentine's Day balloons behind you they're still up there you

know not for nothing I don't know if Mel a is still watching she did not have the courage to make fun of the bed or the

balloons to our face yeah take that take that melee

all right um any other thoughts on relationships AJ any words of wisdom you want to

impart on the podcast PD populace no unfortunately I I think I've said a lot

so far just go out there and be a kind person

she said thanks for bringing them back all right hey hey

AJ's Mike took her attention never they're very professional I am

very professional well I can do this that is freaky

no it's not ladies and gentlemen welcome to the podcast Satan

okay thank you move on move on move on let's talk about my relationship with

students okey-dokey sorry that's all right all right give us your thoughts about the

conversations that we shared by emailing us feedback at podcastpd.com or send us

a voice message go to podcastpd.com feedback uh AJ yeah

do we want to come back at this on Sunday June 25th for episode 129. you're

gonna be misty I will not be at iste on Sunday June 25th oh I will be there on Monday June

26th in 2027. okay and for the Meetup with the G6 and for the Meetup yes

Sunday June 25th June 25th sure

that'll be our next live school year is going to be over so yeah it's gonna be a celebration woohoo

celebration all right I'm not I'm not coming out if

you're doing this nonsense okay I'm sorry there you go I'll never come back

what the does that come through yeah I heard of loud and clear wait what came through

the the beeping okay good just checking yeah otherwise that would have been

really awkward no one really bad you're fired yeah you're fired all right we'll be back on Sunday June 25th for

another live recording it'll be episode 129 and uh a couple of things here final

notes possible what I'm playing episode 129 how is that possible well we switched to the monthly

format we used to do two episodes six hundred episodes wait what I feel like we should have like 600 episodes

well well we don't do it weekly and we don't do it it's hired you know we got a bunch of

episodes during the pandemic when we were going weekly yeah that's true if not we'd probably only be at a hundred

anyway it's all good I cherish every episode that we do every episode I'm just super tired all right text podcast

PD we're powering our community with a texting initiative through remind if you

want to join us text at podcast PD to 81010 and if you want to be part of our

Discord Community go to podcastpd.com Discord where we can talk about AJ

because he's not there I am not there and I was gonna ask anybody actually use them we have it I don't do Discord look my

students use Discord and they're getting in trouble for it so I don't want to be anywhere near this trouble the end okay

our Discord there's no trouble on it well good the house of edtech has a Discord there's no trouble on it I know

garyvee has a Discord so it's crazy it's probably trouble on that one there might be

you could talk about me all you wanted I don't care I'm not joining it's like Tick Tock I'm not interested

all right uh wave goodbye everybody bye everybody

we'll see you in a month thank you for listening and uh yeah we love the rest

of the school year people build those relationships reach out to us yes we will tell you how

to keep building relationships all right have a good night everybody

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